"Well, it won't buy us dinner at a fancy place," Will said, counting out what he and Mick had made for the day. "But then, we're not quite dressed for Delmonico's."
"Delmonico's?"
"A high class eatery in New York City."
"Oh, okay. You ever actually eat there?"
Will smiled. "Once, a long time ago."
Mick grinned. "In the Middle Ages?"
Laughing, Will replied, "Not quite that long ago."
"You know, for some reason, I thought you… I don't know, came from here, maybe. Grew up here?"
Will smiled a bit as they started walking. "Even if I had, it doesn't mean I couldn't have traveled to other places."
"Yeah, true. But you didn't."
"Travel?"
"No, grow up here. From the way you said that, it sounds like you didn't."
"Nope, not a native of this fair city, though I've been here forever, since I was your age when I moved here." Will nodded to a hot-dog cart on the corner. "Dinner time."
Mick started to say something then thought better of it. For as long as he'd known Will—a year, give or take—the man had never revealed anything about himself. Mick wanted to ask where he had come from, but messing up their friendship by doing so wasn't worth it. If and when Will was willing to talk, Mick would listen. Until then, he wouldn't pry.
They ordered two hotdogs each, slathering them with all the available condiments. Will paid then ordered a bag of chips as well. They took their meals to a bench down by the river, away from the evening crowds. As they ate, Mick thought about when he'd been younger and his father had taken him fishing in the same river. It had been many miles from where he and Will were now, but just sitting there, remembering, made him smile sadly.
Will must have caught his look because he asked, "Are you all right?"
"Yeah. Just thinking about the past, before things went bad."
"Want to talk about it?"
"It's nothing I haven't told you before," Mick replied sourly. Then he relented a bit. "Dad and I would go off fishing on Saturday afternoons in the summer, starting when I was like nine or ten. He loved to fish and figured I should learn what it was like." He smiled to himself. "I wasn't big on the fishing part, but getting to spend time alone with him was great. And then… well, I blew it."
"So you've said. Wrong crowd, drugs…"
"Yep, plus coming out to him. To both of them. It was not a good year." He finished his second hotdog and balled up the paper, tossing it into the trashcan by the bench. "But hey, I'm surviving, thanks to you."
Will nodded. "You would have anyway, maybe a bit more battered and bruised, but you would have."
"Probably… possibly… but I wouldn't be learning things." Mick shot a look at him, probing a bit, even though he'd just promised himself he wouldn't. "I bet you were a good, umm… teacher, before… well, before you quit?"
Will just cocked an eyebrow. "We should get moving. It'll be dark soon and you know it's not the safest place down here when it is."
He did it again. He's good a deflecting questions. But someday…
Mick nodded and stood. Soon they were back on the downtown sidewalks, heading toward their 'home'.
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